In “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, considered by many scholars to be the masterpiece par excellence of English romantic poetry, the symbolic themes of mystery and the supernatural play a very crucial role in the overall effect of the poem which John Hill Spencer considers to be Coleridge's "attempt to understand the mystery surrounding the human soul in a mature universe." by forces and powers... immanent and transcendent” (157). . Yet the Mariner himself seems trapped in this supernatural world due to ghostly manifestations emanating from the realms of the unknown. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get Original Essay “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” was first published in Lyrical Ballads in 1798, a collection of poetry written and published jointly by Coleridge and his good friend William Wordsworth. Yet the text of the poem generally used today appeared in Sibylline Leaves in 1817. The narrative of "Rime" is based on numerous sources and some of the ideas expressed in the poem were inspired by other pieces of verse read by Coleridge. The central action, however, seems to have been suggested by Wordsworth, who was familiar with Shelvocke's book, A Voyage Round the World by the Way of the Great South Sea (1726), which describes the killing of an albatross by an anonymous sailor during of a very bad trip. weather report. According to the Reverend Alexander Dyce, a close associate of Wordsworth, "Rime" was initially based on a strange dream experienced by John Cruikshank in which he saw a ship piloted by a skeleton crew. As Graham Davidson points out, the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner "reads like a supernatural poem in which the representation of reality is secondary to the representation of spiritual realities" (134). This observation can be supported by examination of a number of crucial stanzas which contain symbolic images and themes relating to mystery and the supernatural, such as the strange weather encountered by the ship (1.11-12), the land of ice and snow (1.14-15). ), the appearance of the albatross as a sign of good omen (1.16-18), the death of the albatross at the hands of the Mariner (1. 19-20), the revenge of the albatross (2. 9- 11 ), death and dying in life (3. 10-11) and the appearance of the dead crew members on board the ship (5. 9-10) The story that describes the strange weather in the first part. , stanzas 11-12, is the first instance where Coleridge begins to draw the reader into his haunting symbolism "And now the storm came, and he/was tyrannical and strong" (lines 40-41) likens time to a manifestation. physicality dominated by a male presence with "wings outspread" (line 42), much more like an evil messenger from hell itself. In his study of the Romantic imagination, J. Livingston Lowes notes that in this stanza "the natural and the supernatural seem to merge" (57), which may also apply to stanza 14 ("And now came to the times the mist and the snow/How wonderfully cold it has become", lines 55-56). Although this setting may at first seem strange and supernatural, it is indeed based on reality, such as the crossing of the equator to the southern hemisphere during the winter months with "mast-high ice" (line 57) floating on the open sea. "as green as emerald" (line 58). long considered by sailors to be benevolent and peaceful, will soon transform into an arena of terror and mystery when the ancient sailor herself commits a heinous crime against nature. With stanza 16, the reader is introduced to the. albatross, alarge, snow-white seabird that has long been considered by sailors of all cultures as an auspicious sign, especially when the ship is caught in the clutches of a terrible storm. This form of exultation is best expressed as "And a good south wind rose behind/The Albatross followed/And every day, to eat or play/I came to the sailor's salvation!" (lines 65-68). And it is here that Coleridge begins to dwell on whiteness, like that of the bird, which symbolizes not only purity but also the terror associated with the unknown and the mysterious. In stanzas 19 and 20, the death of the albatross at the hands of the ancient sailor symbolizes much more than a crime against creation, as it ensures that the sailor and his crewmates are doomed to wander the seas as specters living in death. Richard Holmes notes that in this stanza Coleridge "recognizes an older pagan theme of vengeance" (419) which signals that the bird itself is a pagan symbol of the death of the soul. Like the albatross "perched for the nine vespers" (line 76), a reference to the prayers spoken by the crew or the ship's nine bells ringing in the mist, while "all night, through the fog, the smoke white/shined the sky". white moonlight" (lines 77-78), the ancient sailor suddenly kills the bird with his crossbow ("I shot the Albatross", line 82), which shows that the poem's narrative unfolds to medieval times where, according to Celtic myth, birds represented prophetic knowledge or bloodshed in the form of an omen or messenger of bad news (Nooden, Internet). In the second part of the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", the albatross begins his vengeance against the Mariner and his crew by initiating two distinct "plague" motifs: first, as grief and guilt take hold of the Marinating, he becomes very thirsty and realizes that he will not be quenched ("Water, water, everywhere/Nor any drop to drink", stanza 9, lines 39-40). He then sees "...slimy things" that "creep with their paws/On the slimy sea" (stanza 10, lines 43-44) as the body of the dead albatross hangs in a noose tied around it. from his neck. Stanza 11 truly evokes the motifs of mystery and the supernatural, as “The fires of death danced the night/Water, like a witch's oils/Green, blue and white burned” (lines 46- 48) which constitutes a symbol. of the bird's vengeance and conjures up images of a witch's cauldron boiling with colored "oils". Interestingly, water, for the medieval alchemist, was a very powerful magical element that could dissolve everything, including perhaps guilt and the consequences of murder. In the third part of this excursion into the mysterious and supernatural, the reader is presented with Coleridge's Gothic themes which were heavily influenced by writers such as Horace Walpole (The Castle of Otranto, 1765). His description of Death in stanza 11 as being in the form of a woman ("Her lips were red, her gaze was free/Her locks were yellow as gold/Her skin was as white as leprosy", lines 48-50) which is "The nightmare of life in death" (line 51) is very reminiscent of a vampire who "thickens man's blood with cold" (line 52). Thus the Mariner is trapped in a world brought about by the murder of the albatross and the deadly vengeance of the bird and once again Coleridge focuses on whiteness as a means of expressing the terrors felt by the Mariner as he observes this “woman”. ", the very image of feminine beauty and horror. Finally, in the fifth part of the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner", the flesh and blood spirits of the Mariner's teammates, due to the curse cast on them by, 1983.